A spill is a spill. Stuff gets spilt. Can you understand that
elementary concept? It doesn't matter what causes a spill, once the
stuff gets spilt. Perhaps you've never spilled anything. Or seen a
spill.

Stuff gets spilled all the time all over the world, for a thousand
different reasons. Has happened thousands of times, over thousands of
years.

There has been one spill caused by Y2k testing. All of a sudden
we're looking at the end of civilization due to this one
spill, according the chorus of Doomer Zombie idiots.

I see a huge gap in logic. If you don't, you should be put in a
padded room, indefinitely. It's just that simple.

Wright, Andy, whoever you are,
Point is, you folks are making a big deal out of a SPILL. A SPILL.

A spill is a spill. Stuff gets spilt. Can you understand that
elementary concept? It doesn't matter what causes a spill, once the
stuff gets spilt. Perhaps you've never spilled anything. Or seen a
spill.

Stuff gets spilled all the time all over the world, for a thousand
different reasons. Has happened thousands of times, over thousands of
years.

There has been one spill caused by Y2k testing. All of a sudden we're
looking at the end of civilization due to this one spill, according
the chorus of Doomer Zombie idiots.

I see a huge gap in logic. If you don't, you should be put in a
padded room, indefinitely. It's just that simple.

With regard to the Duplin Co., NC, hog waste lagoon spill, Chicken
Little said, "And that has become a fairly regular occurrence in that
state (sadly enough) -- but not
the end of the world. Not even close."

No, it's not the end of the world. But without the moratorium on new
hog farms (now two years old), it might be for a good part of North
Carolina. The Neuse River, a source of drinking water, fishing and
other recreations, is heavily polluted with hog farms the major
culprit (especially the periodic waste spills); drinking water wells
are contaminated (proven to be from hog waste from nearby farms); UNC
has found people have a much greater incidence of respiratory and
other illnesses near hog farms; and so on. The stink, I understand,
makes your eyes water and leaves you gagging.

Since the moratorium was instituted and stricter regulations imposed,
hog producers have begun eyeing Georgia. The Georgia legislature is
rushing regulations through so that their state is not raped by the
hog farmers. BTW, "hog farmer" means at least 4500 animals--we are
not talking small family farms here.

One 4-million-gallon sewage spill, very quickly contained, does not a
disaster make. It's the implications that have people concerned.
Anyone who lives in North Carolina, especially the poor souls near the
enormous hog farms, can understand the implications of the sewer
spill. One of the reasons there hasn't been much trouble lately is
because exports, and consequently production, have dropped
precipitously, to the point where the government is supplying about
$50m in aid to the depressed industry.

No it's not the end of the world--unless your drinking water comes
from the Neuse, a well supplies your drinking water, or you live in
the same area as a hog operation.

THE gull that has made a car park attendant's life a
misery for the past four
summers is back.

Donald Weston, 54, who runs Wellington Street car
park in Gloucester, has
to endure constant attacks from the gull, which
swoops on him every time he
leaves his hut but leaves his customers alone. The
use of a motorcycle helmet,
even disguises, have not fooled the gull, which Mr
Weston has named the
Wellington Bomber.

It subjects him to varied aerial attacks each June,
often divebombing him with
vomit or droppings. The 500 people who use the car
park each day are never
attacked. Two days ago, the bird made its first
appearance of the year when
it landed on a chimney pot overlooking the car park.
As soon as Mr Weston
left his hut, the gull swooped.

Mr Weston has been on a diet for the past few weeks
in the hope of being
able to out-run the bomber. He said: "I was shattered
last year when I had to
run all over to get away from him. I was limping all
over the car park for
weeks afterwards. It's no good trying to disguise
myself, it always recognises
me. It even knows my cough. If I walk across the park
with anyone it leaves
me alone. It only goes for me when I'm on my own."

The attacks began in 1995. Mr Weston believes that
the gull may be the chick
he rescued in the park and was angered by being put
in the boot of his car.
This year, however, it has not attacked with its
normal intensity.

I really like this argument. It can cope with anything. Up to
and including world wars.

"World wars? They happen two
or three times every century, right? Perfectly normal. In the macro
worldwide sense, that is."

It all depends on your perspective. (Note: the 'Quaternary period"
began about 3 million years ago.) From an article on the Pleist
ocene Epoch:

"Core samples of deep ocean sediments provide evidence
that there were more than 16 glaciations during the Quaternary
Period, starting at the beginning of the Pleistocene Epoch. Each
glaciation lasted about 100,000 years, progressing slowly and
hesitantly from a warm interval (called an interglacial period) to
colder and colder conditions, until huge ice sheets covered most of
Canada. There was a marked transition from glaciers to renewed
warmth. The present relatively warm, ice-free period may mark the end
of the last ice age, or it could be an interglacial or even an
interstadial interval (a pause before the next advance).

nospam@nospam.net wrote in message
<7kcest$2k0f@enews1.newsguy.com>...>"Bob Brock"
<bbrock@i-america.net> wrote:>> Trying to extrapolate the test of
a water reclamation>>system (that was tested "on
line") into failures of chemical and
nuclear>>generating plants is not "objective
reasoning".>>Oh, and objective reasoning comes
when you're popping your friggin KI>pills because some
nuke plant cooling pump "failed to report
it's>condition" ?>>Sorry, but the real
stress test comes near the end of the year and>lasts into
2000.>>This anal acamemic crap gets annoying after a
while in the real world.>>

brock is an asshole. forget him. The important lessons to be
learned from the sewage spill are...

1. It was NOT caught
before the damage was done.2. They did not have a manual overide
in place to STOP the spill. 3. If it was a spill of a toxic chemical ,
you tell me how they would have manually stopped a cloud of toxic gas
from expanding.4.They were supposed to be competent EXPERTS, but
they PROVED to be incompetent rubes.5. This is just the tip of the
iceberg in terms of the damaging consequences to
come.

This is a metaphor for Y2K. Quite funny actually,
that we have as a first 'major' reported Y2K incident , the shit
spilling all over the place.

Let's see; A y2k test in LA leads to a 4 million gal sewer
spill. Some sort of computer Malfunction up in Bellingham
leads to 200+thousand gallons of gasoline spilling into a
creek and incinerating three kids. A computer "problem" in
Port Huron Mich causes too much Nat Gas to be fed into
pilot lights, causing 39 house fires. Look, I don't know
squat about computers, I've got web tv. I stumbled on to
Cory Hamasaki's site months ago,and started to read about
y2k and started to prepare. It seems his"Jo Ann effect" in
which computer foul ups will become more and more frequent
as 2000 approaches, is starting to happen.

Sometimes a big spill of hazardous material can do a lot of damage.
Maybe some here recall Union Carbide's disaster at Bhopal in 1984,
which released 40 tons of methyl isocyanate, hydrogen cyanide, and
other gases to the atmosphere, "killing over 8,000 people in its
immediate aftermath and causing multisystemic injuries to over
500,000 people. The number of deaths has risen to over 16,000 in the
subsequent years..." See http://www.corpwatch.org/trac/feature/india/profiles/bhopal
/original.html.

Just another industrial accident. They happen all the time. "In
the macro worldwide sense, it is NOTHING." There! See how easy it
is?

No doubt all chemical plants in the U.S. have safety mechanisms
designed to prevent accidental hazmat releases. Will all computer-
related functions involved in these mechanisms experience the Y2K
rollover successfully? Let's hope they will.

At _______, protecting the safety and health of our employees and the
citizens of the local community is our primary concern. ________ has
implemented many systems and programs throughout the plant to make
sure the health and safety of the employees and the local citizens are
protected. These systems and programs make up our Layers of
Prevention to minimize the impact of accidental releases of hazardous
chemicals.

The Layers of Prevention include designing storage and handling
systems for safety. This is achieved in part by following up-to-date
engineering and design standards that incorporate automatic and manual
shut-off valves. By installing emergency shutdown systems and the
construction of secondary containment for liquid storage vessels.

The Layers of Prevention however cannot be maintained without highly
skilled and trained maintenance employees. These employees use
state-of-the-art diagnostic tools to support a preventative
maintenance program throughout processes.

Prevention of accidental releases begins with operations. This Layer
of Prevention is achieved by maintaining detailed written operating
procedures. The procedures include continuous computer and operator
monitoring with frequent Safety Reviews and Process Hazard Analysis.
Audits by Plant and Corporate Personnel and immediate incident
investigations and follow-up provide an additional Layer of
Prevention."
----------------------------------------------------------------
Reassuring, eh?
" ... following up-to-date engineering and design standards that
incorporate automatic and manual shut-off valves ... The Layers
of Prevention however cannot be maintained without highly skilled and
trained maintenance employees. These employees use
state-of-the-art diagnostic tools to support a preventative
maintenance program throughout processes ... procedures include
continuous computer and operator monitoring ..."